This invention is a watercraft carrier. The difficulty with using a roof mounted watercraft carrier on most vehicles is that the watercraft is large and unwieldy. This makes it difficult to mount the watercraft onto the carrier. This is especially true of taller vehicles and shorter people. In addition to the difficulty in mounting the watercraft, once the watercraft is mounted, getting straps that secure the watercraft in place is even more difficult. Again, short people and taller vehicles make this process even more difficult.
Other inventions have attempted to solve this problem. U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,396, by Ketterhagen, is an example of a system that lowers the carrier to a height that the user can easily load the watercraft. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,775,557 and 5,516,017, both by Arvidsson, use a low profile carrier. The Arvidsson systems still require the user to reach the top of the carrier so that the user can attach a securing strap from one raised end of the carrier to another. The Ketterhagen patent avoids this problem by using a rigid clamp, instead of a strap.
The Arvidsson patents do not disclose a carrier that is more accessible to an average user. The Ketterhagen system is more accessible, but would require the clamp to be specially formed for each watercraft. On the other hand, the use of a strap by the Arvidsson patents makes the Arvidsson systems more adaptable to a variety of watercraft.